OpenOffice

1
OpenOffice

• Wayne S. Rossi
• Mike Toresco
• for
• Open Source Development

2
Overview

• OpenOffice's purpose
• The Details
• Creation
• Licensing
• Projects
• Advantages and Disadvantages
• Conclusions

3
Why OpenOffice?

• The OpenOffice mission statement
• To create, as a community, the leading
  international office suite that will run on all
  major platforms and provide access to all
  functionality and data through open-component
  based APIs and an XML-based file format.
• In other words, make an open source project into
  the leading office suite program.

4
The Great Showdown?
5
The Great Showdown?

• FIGHT!

6
Where OpenOffice Came From

• StarOffice was developed by StarDivision in
  Germany during the 1980s
• In 1999, Sun Microsystems bought StarDivision.
  StarOffice 5.2 was released in June 2000
• StarOffice was distributed in a pay version and a
  (proprietary) free version.

7
Going Open Source

• In 2000, Sun open sourced the StarOffice code
  under dual licenses
• GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
• Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL)
• In 2002, OpenOffice.org goes online.

8
What they're doing now

• Accepted Projects
• Includes API, DBA, GSL, XML, various
  applications, underlying framework, and
  documentation.
• Native/Lang Projects
• Includes Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German,
  Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish,
  and Thai language support for OpenOffice.
• Incubator/Whiteboard Projects
• Community-sponsored or experimental projects.

9
So Why Use It, Anyway?

• This presentation was made using Impress in
  OpenOffice v. 1.0.1.
• OpenOffice can generate fully Microsoft Office
  compatible files.
• Word Documents (Writer)
• Excel Spreadsheets (Calc)
• PowerPoint presentations (Impress)

10
Slices, dices, and makes julienne fries!

• OpenOffice is designed to look and feel similar
  to Microsoft Office.
• It's probably out for your operating system.
• If you're running Windows, Linux, Solaris,
  LinuxPPC, FreeBSD, or Mac OS X (still in beta),
  you can download OpenOffice v. 1.0.3.

11
And, since it's open source...

• OpenOffice can be downloaded completely free.
• StarOffice v. 6.0 can be bought for 79 and comes
  with CDs and documentation.
• Microsoft Office XP Professional costs 579 and
  can only be installed on one computer.

12
Is there anything it can't do?

• No parallel for Microsoft Access
• But open source solutions for databases still
  exist.
• Cannot use some templates and macros.
• The overwhelming majority of users are completely
  unaffected by this.

13
So, who needs it?

• Most people who use MS Office don't take
  advantage of enough features to justify its
  costs.
• It's like driving your M1-A1 Abrams tank to work.

14
Who should consider the switch?

• Individuals who don't need the database, macros,
  and templates that MS Office has.
• (Or just don't need them worth 479)
• Businesses who can't afford or don't need MS
  Office Professional.
• (At 579 per computer, that is fairly
  substantial.)

15
Conclusions

• 720,000 people have downloaded OpenOffice.
• It has the desired compatibility with MS Office.
• For most users, OpenOffice is a better choice.

16
Got Questions?

• ?

17
We do.

• What company open-sourced the office suite for
  OpenOffice?
• Name three popular MS Office programs whose
  function OpenOffice duplicates.